Weekend Rally at Kai Iwi

 Kai Iwi Beach Holiday Park is a camp our club hadn't visited for a while, and the Camp Saver rates were certainly a bonus.  Five vans, two Birman cats and a dog were in attendance over the weekend.

Here we all are

Sue and Murray were the last to arrive, and certainly made a statement when they arrived towing their new van.  That's always exciting.  Everyone was very interested to see it.

Sue and  Murray's new van

The camp runs a fish and chip shop, so that was on the menu that evening.  I think we all indulged in Friday fish and chips for our meal.  Then there was the usual evening catch up - plenty of room in the lounge for our group.

Owen had arranged a visit to local car enthusiast Sandy's home to view his cars, and his brother Colin was there to help with questions as well.  This beauty, a 1952 De Soto, was in the driveway, all  bright and shiny and waiting to be admired.

1952 De Soto

Sandy wanted a sports car with a long bonnet but couldn't find a commercial option, so decided to build one himself.  No plans, it was all in his head, just waiting to be acted on, he said.  What a clever man, so talented and I'm sure not many people would be able to accomplish such a thing like this.  

Hand built shiny red long bonnet sports car

Another of Sandy's projects was to build a cannon.  This one can fire a cannon ball hundreds of feet, we were told.

Sandy's cannon

Time for lunch - but with the first choice closed up tight, we backtracked to Pukeko's Nest Cafe.  There was a group from a car club in attendance taking up a lot of tables,  but we managed to find a couple of tables for our group, and settled down to enjoy our lunch.  Soup was on the menu so that was my choice, and Robin enjoyed his bacon and egg sandwich 

Time for lunch

Driving back to camp to tool a slight detour, driving through the tiny Mowhanau Village down to the coast.

Although the estuary is pleasant, this is a rough and wild coast, with a sign telling of the dangers.  There was a tiny Life Savers hut perched on the cliff overlooking the beach.

The wild beach

At 4zees we had a very interesting talk from the camp host, telling us how he moved on from a high powered IT job advising Government Agencies to purchasing the lease on Kai Iwi motor camp.  He is enjoying the slower paced life and is active in the community on several committees.

It was quiz night on Saturday night, (guess who won) followed by Sue and Murray telling us about the highlights of their 3 month South Island trip.  Our final morning tea was enjoyed sitting in the sunshine, then it was time to pack up, hook up, and head away home.

A Bonus Day

 What's better than going away on a weekend rally?  Taking an extra day to get there - that's what.  Four of us decided to head away on Thursday, a day early, just because we could.   There was the lay by we were looking for, a little before Turakina.  But we had whizzed past almost before we realized we were there, had to go further and turn around, drive back along the busy road and turn around again, before finally reaching our goal.

Lunch stop

Our traveling companions Owen and Helen were just passing Himatangi, they told us, so we settled down to eat our bacon sandwhiches and await their arrival.  They had further to travel than us, and when they arrived, we had another cuppa and welcomed them.  

Our stop for the night was a new one for us all, Koitiata Camp Grounds, reached by turning off the main road at Turakina, and traveling about 8km down the road to the coast.  This camp is in two parts, an area with non powered sites across the road, and about eight power sites in the main area.  This is an older camp and getting longer modern caravans on site took a bit of an effort.  The fees are very reasonable, being $16 a night  for a powered site.

Here for the night

We were parked beside an older lady who lives full time in her motor home.  She was 94, she told us, and had just passed her drivers licence again, she proudly informed us.  How wonderful.  There was also a family camping in a couple of tents, who had been very noisy the previous night, a local lady warned us.

Two Leisurelines and an Auto Sleeper

The grand tour around this little village didn't take too long, but was still quite interesting.  driving around,  up and down the few streets, then we stopped at the beach.  Cell phone reception here is very weak, and there is a platform on the beach to climb up to and hopefully get a stronger signal.

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Cell phone reception area

Kai Iwi Beach

There was an interesting sperm whale vertebrae in a case on display close by.  This sperm whale was found on the beach around 1950.  

Sperm Whale vertebrae in a display case

Back in our respective vans during the evening, the peace was shattered with loud voices shouting and swearing, a car alarm going off time and time again.  What on earth was happening?  Our traveling companions didn't seem to be involved, so we kept to ourselves, and the noise finally died down.  In the morning we discovered that the police had been called, and the family was moved on from the camp.  Apparently the demon drink was involved in the fracas, and we were told that the family had been evicted from a previous camp - my goodness, what a way for a family to live.

After a leisurely morning tea we moved on too, stopping at a very interesting local church on Turakina Beach Road.  This modest little church had a couple of beautiful etched glass windows, and an extensive old graveyard.

Can you see the etched windows?

Our next stop was on SH3, Turakina Antiques and Collectables.  After years of driving by, towing the caravan behind, Owen wanted to stop and check it out.  That was fine with us, so we stopped too.  The hardest part was crossing over the busy road as cars and trucks whizzed by at 100km, we waited for a break in the traffic and scurried across.

This place was huge inside, room after room choc full of crystal, silver, fine china, and some furniture.  Cabinets were packed full with crockery and china, there were several large dining tables with large place settings, and cabinets full of other collectables.  All quite beautiful, but nothing jumped out to say "buy me".  These beautiful items for sale needed a large colonial home with big rooms to show them off.  A lot of us have downsized to smaller homes these days.

A peek inside the antique shop

Back in the cars, and we headed for out stop for weekend, Kai Iwi Beach, where we will be joined by our caravan club buddies for a rally.

Riding the Rails

 Time has got away on me, and I'm only just getting around to tell about our rail trip last month.  Happy travelers waited at the Levin Railway Station and chatted away while we waited in eager anticipation. 

Waiting for our rail adventure

Rather like "Mind the Gap" in UK

 The Spiral Spectacular run by Steam Incorporated left Paekakariki and 7.00am and arrived at Levin Station running a little late.  The excited bunch of travelers identified their correct carriage, and climbed aboard, looking for their seat numbers.  The engine was pulling seven carriages, a bar/lounge car, buffet car, and a viewing car.

Here it comes

Our first stop was Palmerston North when the red diesel engine was changed to an electric engine.  That certainly received a lot of attention from passengers as they crowded around to have a good look.

The engine was changed 

The scenery was spectacular, as we slowly crossed rivers high up on viaducts.  We were amazed to see car loads of train spotters who were following us on the trip, racing ahead in their cars to set up their very impressive cameras on tripods as we trundled past.  

It's a long way down

We had prepared a packed liuch of bacon and egg sandwhiches, shortbread, and somehow a couple of chocolate bars jumped in too.  Robin made the trip to the cafe car for two coffees and we tucked into our lunch at Waiouru.  Some passengers disembarked here for a visit to the Army Museum.

Lunch time 

At last we made it to the Raurimu Spiral, a single track railway spiral, starting with a horseshoe curve.  This was built to overcome the 139m, 456ft height difference on the Main Trunk Line.  The Institute of Professional Engineers of New Zealand have designated the spiral as a significant engineering heritage site.  Unfortunately the passengers had to remain on the train during our stop here.  Guess it was a health and safety requirement, but we had disembarked here on an earlier trip.

Raurimu

On the way back Mt Ruapehu was playing hide and seek with the cloud cover,  but we know it is hiding there somewhere.

Mt Ruapehu

The passengers who had disembarked at Waiouru rejoined the train and we all settled back to enjoy the homeward trip.  Some of us had decided to pre-order our evening meal from the Hunterville Hotel.  The train glided to a stop, the volunteers on each carriage jumped out, and came back loaded with boxes.

Collecting the dinner boxes

Well, we certainly didn't go hungry.  There was chicken salad, a bread roll, fruit salad, cheese and crackers and a brownie.  So much in fact, that we took some of it home with us.

Dinner box

The light was fading and we traveled the last part of the journey in darkness, whizzing by farms and small towns.  Oh look, I think we are almost in Levin.  The train stopped, we were reminded to take all our belongings with us, and we stepped off the train about 8.30pm.  It was a long day, but such fun.

Sunny Days and Chilly Evenings

 Sunny days and chilly mornings and evenings, that's what the weather was like at Napier over our four night stay.  Just as well we had a hard working diesel heater keeping us cozy and warm when needed.  There was a busy morning in camp when a big truck and trailer arrived, plus earth moving equipment.  A few holes in the gravel driveway were filled, and soil added to top up depressions in the grass areas.

We were here again so quickly since our last trip at Easter, to attend the memorial service for my brother-in-law Dennis.  My sister Kathleen passed away three years ago during Covid lockdown, and her husband Dennis died last week.  It was a nice service, sad at times of course, but plenty of happy memories.  Dennis enjoyed writing stories and poetry, painted and did carving, he was  very talented indeed.  This is one of his short poems which those of us who are getting older could certainly relate to.

Hideout Henry

I'm playing hide and seek with Henry, and I'd better find him quick

I'm wobbly today and kind of dizzy, and Henry's my walking stick.

Driving around one day we passed a paddock filled with small round red fruit, not strawberries surely at this time of year.  So we stopped for a good look, and discovered they were low growing tomatoes, they looked like acid free tomatoes to me.  That was unexpected, seems quite late in the season for tomatoes to be grown outside.

Tomatoes growing in May

We were on our way to one of my favourite cafes for morning tea.  Silky Oak Chocolates sell all sorts of chocolately goodies.  We chose an iced chocolate for him and a hot chocolate for her, so delicious.

Silky Oak Chocolate Cafe

Robin was wondering how long our gas bottle would last.  Of course, it emptied in the early hours of the morning, and we woke to find the fridge flashing.  No wonder I couldn't get the gas lit to boil the kettle for our early morning cuppa.   So out he went in the chilly morning to swap the fitting to the other gas bottle, and he got it refilled later in the morning.  Prices for a gas refill obviously vary throughout the country, this fill was quite a bit cheaper than what we pay at home.

Filling the gas bottle

Starting the journey home on Monday morning we fueled up then stopped at the West Shore dump station.  While Robin was taking care of business I walked up to take a photo of the bird sculpture.  Stopping here often, this  was the first time I had taken a close look at it.

Public art installation

Lunch stop was at Woodville and we popped over to check out the Woodville Camp site.  Quite small with about 8 power sites, and $20.00 per person per night.

 Woodville motor camp

Taking a different route home, we drove over the long Ballance  Bridge, along a narrow country road, eventually arriving at the Pahiatua Track, arriving home mid afternoon.

Ballance Bridge

Trip to Hawkes Bay

 We have a family Memorial to attend in Hastings this weekend, so decided to set out early and have a four day trip, instead of rushing there and back.  Our trip up was anything but rushed, due to a couple of detours and the  huge amount of orange road cones everywhere.  The first detour we encountered was close to home, when the road out of our village was closed and we went all round the streets to get back on track.  That took a little bit of time, but soon we were on our way.  

We were joined by a long stream of motor bike riders just north of Levin, and they traveled just ahead of us up and over the Saddle Road.  There was not too much wind blowing up the top as some of the wind turbines were very sluggish indeed.  Just before Dannevirke we were directed on a very long detour indeed, taking us along Top Grass Road.  We estimated this detour was about 15km long, taking us along some roads not traveled before.  

At last we rejoined SH2, and stopped for lunch at the Matamau Diner, north of Dannevirke for a coffee, to go with our lunch, something I had prepared earlier, as the saying goes.  Our caravan looked very tiny indeed, dwarfed by the huge trucks which had also stopped for lunch.

First time we have stopped here.

Then we continued on our way, meeting up with more road works, stop and go signs, and millions of road cones.  That's the way to make money, we reckon, manufacture road cones for all these miles of road works!

At last we arrived at Napier NZMCA park, this was a really slow trip indeed.

Eriksen Road Park is very roomy,  but much of the area had been roped off.  Not because of flooding, as we thought, but because areas of the lawn had been reseeded.

There was still plenty of sites available, we found ourselves one, settled down, and made a cuppa.  Yes, we needed one after the long slow trip.

Home for the next four nights

It was fish and chips from the Filter Room for dinner, they certainly are delicious.  Robin had a bit of a wait as several orders delivered by Uber Eats went out first.  

Robin is on dinner duty tonight

It will be a chilly 6 degrees tonight.  But we are tucked up tight, nice and comfy with the diesel heater keeping us warm.  I'm sure Gemma will spent the night cuddled up on the bed with us too.